'If they can bomb us once, they can do it again'

Voices of America

Brian Buchanan, driver helping as rescuer

"I saw two arms and wondered if they belonged to a man or a woman. Then I noticed the nice manicures, and thought it must have been a woman. And I wanted to cry.''

Rick Cushman, chef, formerly a National Guard

"If there's a hell, this is the place. You're walking through this field of debris – twisted steel, crushed fire trucks, body parts just lying there. It's a very emotional thing.''

Zachary Meltzer, on death of his son Stuart

"He died a horrible death. And he knew he was dying. I had three wonderful sons. Now I have only two."

Tony Nuzzo, 48, retail executive

"You always looked to the two towers to find out where you're going, and now they're gone."

Salaam Coleman, 31, television executive

"New Yorkers are now making eye contact with each other."

Tracey Harden, a mother picking children up from school

"A lot of parents worked at the World Trade Centre. There were kids screaming, 'Is my mother dead?' "

Atina Mecklenburg, whose son Max saw bodies fall from towers

"These children have images in their brains that are pretty intense. You wonder, what are the consequences?"

Colin Zaremba, 19, who marched on a mosque in Chicago

"I'm proud to be American and I hate Arabs... I always have."

Issam Koussan, an Arab-American putting US flags outside his home and supermarket

"I just feel I needed to show my loyalty to this country. This terrorist act is outrageous, and we are all shocked. I hope whoever did this is not of a Middle Eastern background. We are all very sad."

Dr Rachel Yehuda, professor of psychiatry

"We're really not post- traumatic yet. We have not been given the numbers of dead yet. We just don't have the full impact of what we have experienced in front of us."

Dr Todd Wider, surgeon working at a triage centre

"Let's just say there was a steady stream of body bags coming out all night. That and lots and lots of body parts."

Saul Zelmanowitz on his uncle Abe who refused to leave a quadraplegic colleague in the Trade Centre

"We were begging with him to leave, my mother pleaded with him. But he was steadfast that he wouldn't leave his friend."

Melissa Hughes, who was trapped in World Trade Centre and left an answerphone message for her husband

"Sean, it's me. I just wanted to tell you I love you. I'm stuck in this building in New York. A plane hit the building or a bomb went off, we don't know, but there's lots of smoke and I just wanted you to know that I love you. Bye bye."

Chris Mills, spoke to girlfriend Danielle Kousoulis as she was trapped in second tower

"We shared some moments about each other. At that point she didn't know that the other building had collapsed. She didn't want to know, I didn't tell her. I said 'get out, just get out of there. Do whatever you can do.' They weren't sure if anyone knew they were up there."

Veronica Miazga, 31, of Detroit

"I had never bought a flag before, but I just had to today. I had been watching television ever since it happened and I wanted to show my support."

Pesha Ramo, of Philadelphia

"How can this happen? Is it the start of World War III?"

Kristin Ferra, student in Philadelphia

"I'm still worried. Not for tonight. I think this thing is far from over. If they can bomb us once, they can bomb us again."

Ernie Calhoun, 80, of Pennsylvania; fought in World War II and Korea

"I wasn't scared then, why would I be scared now? I've seen planes get shot down like I don't know what.

"Let them keep messing with Uncle Sam, and they'll see how crazy he is. Just don't show them any mercy. That's the way I feel. They didn't show us any mercy."

Marianthe Richards, trying to fly from Los Angeles to Florida

"I don't know, what do you do now? Things are never going to be OK. No one's ever going to feel safe again."

Rob Ventola, works for internet firm in Boston

"If you dwell on it too much, it's going to drive people nuts. It's going to eat at your soul. I had to go back to work. I didn't know what else to do."

Fernando Vina, of the St Louis Cardinals, on the cancelled baseball

"You can't have a stadium full of people having fun, because that is not what this is about now."

Jason Ryan, of Detroit, plans to visit New York

"It's a feeling you can't quite explain. It's not pity or remorse. But it's a feeling of wanting to rebuild and carry on. We just can't let this defeat us."

Chrystal Hinsenkamp, 19, student

"A lot of people say this is like Pearl Harbor. But in Pearl Harbor, [the Japanese] used their planes. This was with our planes."

Amy Porter, 23

"We have to take our time and make absolutely sure we know who did this before we go off bombing anybody. But if it turns out we can find out a country was responsible, we need to act with our Army."

Kyisha Bandy, Detroit

"Growing up, I had to deal with race issues. Now I hope people see it's not about colour, because [some] folks do not care what colour you are. They just want to see those Americans punished for whatever reason."

William Greenson, of Hartland

"We need to act. We know that Osama bin Laden was involved in the bombing of the World Trade Centre [in 1993] and we've let him get away with it. What kind of message does that give?"

Jeann Perry, of Ypsilanti

"We must send a clear message to whoever these killers are that our country will not tolerate hate-mongers taking out innocent people."

Trent Penna, 47, of Howell Township

"If it's harder or takes longer for us to get on an airplane, so be it. We haven't made sacrifices in this country for a long, long time, but things change when you're attacked."

George Ruck

"What punishment can be appropriate for the perpetrators of these tragedies? They appear to be willing to die for their desperate beliefs. As long as the support system for these fiends remains in place, more tragedy will follow."

David Walker, 62

"You leave home in the morning, kiss your honey and kiss your kids, you might not see them again. We got to stop this."